It’s a long way from the oak-shaded streets of Stellenbosch University to the wooded expanses of the southern section of Africa’s Great Rift Valley in Malawi. But that's where several post-graduate students are helping with important environmental research.

Earthwatch has partnered with Dave Rearick, captain of the 40-foot ocean racing sailboat Bodacious Dream, to incorporate citizen science into his solo journey around the world.

An avid sailor who first began piloting boats in his teens on Lake Michigan, Dave Rearick always dreamed of circumnavigating the globe alone—one of the most solitary journeys imaginable. Now the journey has begun, and he's taken the Earthwatch commitment to research along with him.

Earthwatch joined the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and more than 25 other leading organizations to attempt to capture the basic idea of natural capital – the value nature provides to business.